How to make a genin team with two genins and a chunin
by Haely Potter
Summary: Naruto graduated the Academy at eight and was placed as Kakashi's apprentice. A few years later, Kakashi finally passes a genin team.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, I've been watching Naruto from the beginning, and, well, I wanted a reason for Naruto to be more powerful than in the series. Yes, this way he wouldn't have Iruka as a precious person which would suck, but he'd have gained Kakashi. Anyway, as I understand it, Kakashi left ANBU when Naruto was six, after ten years of service (four under Yondaime, six under Sandaime), so he'd have been free to take an apprentice. (Also, Sandaime emotionally blackmailed him into taking Naruto as an apprentice...)

So, now we have a very twisted version of Team Minato in our Team Seven.

BTW: Naruto _doesn't_ know about the Kyuubi being sealed in him yet.

Enjoy!

'*'*'*'*'**'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Chunin Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha was used to his sensei being late. At first he'd hated the waiting time, fluctuating anywhere from half-an-hour to three hours, using it to maybe prepare pranks for Hatake Kakashi-sensei or for a nap. Nowadays he used it to train, chakra control still being his worst area of ninja skills. Sometimes he warmed up with stretches and taijutsu katas. Other times he read up on fuinjutsu. Once he'd even gone looking for Kakashi-sensei, but the scolding he'd gotten for not being at the training ground when Kakashi-sensei had finally arrived hadn't been worth the repeat.

However, what he wasn't used to, were the two obviously just Academy graduated genin that were at his normal training ground, looking like they were waiting for something. Or some_one_. It looked like it was _that_ time again.

The boy had black hair and pale skin. His hitai-ate was wrapped around his forehead as was normal. It matched his blue shirt that had a neckline way too open to be practical for a ninja, which even a green genin should have known. The blue wasn't even a grey-blue that would have melded into shadows, but a rather bright blue. His white shorts stood out and if Naruto had to guess, it was to draw attention to the boy's nether regions, which would be very dangerous. He was leaning against a tree, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes were closed.

The girl was even worse than the boy, with her long pink hair and red dress. Her hitai-ate was on top of her head and Naruto fought down a snort. Hitai-ates were there so that people could tell your village at a first glance and the girl's hitai-ate wouldn't serve for anyone but those who were on a higher ground, which in itself would put the girl in the worse position in case of an attack. She too was leaning against a tree, her hands resting in front of her, folded like lady. She'd even crossed her ankles! She at least had her eyes open, even if she continuously stole glances at the boy rather than checked the surroundings for danger.

But the duo was familiar to Naruto, like he'd known them somewhere. It could be that they'd been in the same class in the Academy before he'd graduated early. Or they could have been the grandchildren of his next-door neighbor. He didn't really care either way.

From his perch in the tree, his enhanced hearing picked up the rumbling of an empty stomach and nearly chuckled. Every jounin-sensei told their students not to eat breakfast on the test day, something about measuring their actual potential when in slightly more challenging circumstance than after a good night's rest and full stomach. He himself had been ready to eat _Kakashi-sensei_ when he hadn't eaten breakfast and had been denied lunch. His team hadn't passed and his team mates, umm... Ga... Ge... Ginku! Yes, Ginku, and... and... that girl... had been sent back to the Academy for a year but Kakashi-sensei had taken an interest in Naruto and made him his apprentice. (Later Naruto had found out Hokage-jiji had made the arrangement and now, looking back, he'd agreed that there was no way Kakashi-sensei would have found him interesting enough in any way to make him his apprentice. He'd been loud and stupid. He still was more enthusiastic and talkative than most shinobi, but now he knew when _not_ to go shouting about his dream of becoming Hokage. He still wore orange (it was slightly darker), but it didn't matter anymore, 'cause now he was Konoha's stealth master by far. No one knew he was there if he didn't want them to.)

He turned his attention back to the two genin. He wouldn't get any training done with the two there. He knew he couldn't leave, the scolding from Kakashi-sensei wouldn't be worth it, but was he supposed to just hang out there, waiting for him?

No, that wouldn't be like Uzumaki Naruto at all. With a grin he jumped off to prepare the prank.

A few hours later, when Kakashi-sensei shunshined to the exact spot Naruto had predicted, the chakra from the jutsu activated the seal Naruto had planted there when the girl had been looking at the boy. A wooden cross rose up from behind Kakashi-sensei and his wrists snapped to the horizontal stick, spreading Kakashi-sensei's arms wide. Then more seals activated, and used the kawarimi seal to replace his clothes with those typically used by scarecrows, right down to the hat that now covered his hitai-ate-less eye.

Both genin had leaped up, having sat down leaning against their respective trees, when Naruto's trap had activated, but were now frozen, staring at their sensei.

"It-it wasn't us!" the girl finally said loudly, looking at Kakashi-sensei with wide eyes, hand's covering her mouth.

"Maa, I know know, Sakura," sighed Kakashi-sensei. "There is only one person who would, or could, do something like this. Naruto-kun," he said a little louder, lazily looking around, "come down and meet the cute little genin."

Grinning, Naruto stood up on his tree branch, concentrated chakra to the bottoms of his feet and fell sideways, coming down facing the three other people. "What's up, Kakashi-sensei? Looking a little worn there. Are those new clothes?"

"Behind you, Naruto-kun," Kakashi-sensei's voice said behind him, making him lose concentration and fall down. But before he hit the ground, he managed to turn around and landed on his feet.

"But-but," stuttered the girl, pointing at the scarecrow Kakashi-sensei while looking at the Kakashi-sensei hanging from the tree branch just like Naruto had. "If you're there, how can you be there?"

"Kage bunshin," answered the scarecrow Kakashi and dispersed himself, only leaving the wooden cross and a bunch of clothes.

"You're improving, Naruto-kun," Kakashi-sensei said warmly. "What seals were those?"

"Oh, there was the basic conrtol matrix that activated upon the chakra of your shunshin that activated the gravity seal in the cross and once it was up right, the seals that bound the hands activated, as did the kawarimi seals that replaced the clothes," explained Naruto enthusiastically.

"I've never seen that seal that you used on the wrists before," commented Kakashi-sensei as he went over to the cross to inspect Naruto's work. "How do they work?"

"Well, they draw in the bones in the wrist of the one that activates them. I have a version of it for every bone in the body, as well as modified versions of them that target the blood fed to them rather than the one activating them," Naruto grinned proudly. "I figured they'd be handy in a trap or if you have to immobilize someone for a long time."

"Good thinking, Naruto-kun," Kakashi-sensei praised him and straightened up again. "You'd have had me had I not used kage bunshin. It shouldn't be long until you're ready for the jounin exams."

Naruto brightened up even more. "Really? Yatta! Jounin exams! Here I come! Just you watch, Kakashi-sensei, I'll be Hokage in no time!"

"Maa, Naruto-kun, you still have to get to through the exams, get a few years of service under your belt, teach a genin team and only then can you even be considered a candidate for the title of Hokage, but, in say, eight to ten years... who knows," Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "Maybe Sandaime-sama would be ready to retire."

"Jiji's been ready to retire for fifteen years," complained Naruto. "It's why we had the Yondaime!"

"Aa," agreed Kakashi-sensei. "So," he turned to the two genin who'd just watched interaction of Naruto and himself. "Sakura, Sasuke, this is my apprentice Naruto-kun. Naruto, since you weren't at the Academy yesterday, introduce yourself to the cute little genin."

"Yo," Naruto grinned at them easily and held up a peace sign. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. You may call me Naruto-senpai. I graduated the Academy at eight and became a chunin at ten. I specialize in stealth, ninjutsu and fuuinjutsu but I'm not that shabby with taijutsu either. I like ramen. I don't like stupid people. My hobby is gardening and I've been known to write horrible poetry. My dream is to become the greatest Hokage Konoha has ever seen. It'll be a pleasure to kick your ass today."

"Naruto-kun, don't frighten the cute little genin like that," said Kakashi-sensei and put a hand on top of Naruto's head, which made him glower at his sensei. "But as Naruto-kun said, he'll be your opponent today. Naruto-kun, the bell." Naruto took a bell from his pocket and showcased it to the genin. "The one of you who gets the bell off of Naruto-kun becomes a genin in this team, the other will get sent back to the Academy. This test normally has a failure rate of 66%, so I wouldn't be surprised of neither of you passed." He turned around and set a timer on the training stump. "You have time until noon. The one that doesn't get the bell," he turned to face the genin again and Naruto jingled the bell for good measure, "will be tied to this stump and won't get to eat lunch while the other two will eat the bento in front of them. I also wouldn't recommend holding back." He glanced at Naruto. "No maiming the genin, Naruto-kun. Ready?"

"As ever," he grinned and tied the bell to one of the loops on his pants.

"Well then... START!"

Both Sasuke and Sakura jumped away to hide in the cover the surrounding plant life offered.

Kakashi-sensei took out his little orange book and began reading. Naruto, on the other hand, made a kage bunshin in the trees and used the kawarimi no jutsu to change places with it. Now he was in the trees without the cute little genin knowing, and his kage bunshin was at the clearing, going through Kakashi-sensei's bag for that scroll he'd begun reading yesterday. When it had it, it sat down and began to read it without a care in the world.

The clearing was still for a while, Naruto keeping an eye on Sasuke and Sakura's chakra signatures. Both of them were flaring with annoyance, disbelief and anxiety, giving away their positions even to more experienced genins. He made a mental note to tell Kakashi-sensei to teach them about sensing chakra signatures and suppressing them. Then maybe they wouldn't get killed on their very first mission outside the village.

He'd see which of them gave in first (his money was on Sasuke) from the kage bunshin's memories once it dispersed, but now he had some traps to set up. With a smothered giggle he left his hiding place.

Not too soon, maybe five minutes later, his kage bunshin dispersed itself after a jaunty wave at an enraged and dripping wet Sasuke who was charging at it, rather slowly, after being thrown into the pond. The boy had started off with some kunai and shuriken, following up with taijutsu and some surprising fire jutsu which had, in turn, caused the kage bunshin to throw him into the pond. His accuracy was good enough for a genin (he'd seen more impressive from Maito Gai-san's genin Tenten-san last year on their joint mission, but then, she was specializing in weaponry and Sasuke was not) and his taijutsu was impressive for Academy, but it lacked the surprise elements of his own style, as well as the personality of an older, more experienced genin. But Naruto heartily approved of using ninjutsu in what had previously been strictly a taijutsu battle, as it might throw the enemy off and therefore give you the chance to use more deadly force. Maybe he wouldn't be so bad after all, even if it still remained to be seen.

Half-an-hour later he got the memories of the kage bunshin he'd sent after Sakura and couldn't help giggling. The poor girl had thought she was under a genjutsu when she'd seen Sasuke all mangled up when in fact it had been the kage bunshin under a henge. The kage bunshin had had a moment of doubt in which he'd thought maybe he should have just attacked the girl physically and see where she stood in taijutsu, but when she blood curling scream escaped the kunoichi it'd known it had made the right decision to test her mental strength.

Sasuke wasn't that far from his current position and Naruto decided to wait for him where he was. Surely the hot headed genin would want some revenge for the humiliation of earlier?

He didn't have to wait for long until he felt Sasuke almost enter the clearing he was in before hiding in the shrubbery again. It seemed the little genin had noticed him before entering the actual clearing, which was a good thing. Patiently Naturo pretended to meditate.

"Lesson one, taijutsu," he told the empty clearing. "Lesson two, mind games. Can you guess the third lesson, Sasuke-chan?"

The genin answered by the way of a Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu, to which Naruto responded with a Doton: Doryuheki, the earth wall easily standing up to the Katon jutsu.

"Your ninjutsu is impressive for a genin who shouldn't even have enough chakra for that jutsu," Naruto continued after letting the earth wall fall back. "But how many can you make before you fall unconscious, especially when you haven't eaten breakfast?"

A third fireball of the day was his answer, which he batted aside with Futon: Reppusho. He could hear the genin's labored breathing on the edge of the clearing and stood up. He dropped a smoke bomb on purpose and dove underground.

He grabbed Sasuke's leg. "Doton: Shinju Zanshu no jutsu!" he said and dragged the genin down until only his head was above the ground. Then he emerged from the ground himself and crouched in front of the boy. "Well, you have maybe an hour to get up from there and come find me again. Let's hope you'll do better next time, okay?" He grinned and patted the seething Uchiha on the head, making sure to keep away from the mouth as he'd heard Uchihas were known to bite when young when there were still more of them around. Something about blood lust and the sharingan.

That done he skipped away, leaving the genin to his own devices, but made a kage bunshin to keep an eye on him, to see if he'd try to work with Sakura once she woke up.

An hour later the alarm rang and the kage bunshin dispersed itself, giving Naruto the memories of it shadowing Sasuke for the hour. Apparently Sakura had woken up and had dug him out but he'd refused any notion of team work and made off on his own. Sakura, dejected, had made her way to the edge of the memorial stone clearing where Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were reading.

Once both genin were in the clearing standing in front of them, Sasuke glaring hatefully and Sakura barely able to look up from the ground, did Kakashi-sensei speak.

"Well, Naruto-kun? What is your assessment of the cute little genin?"

"Sasuke-chan is mid-genin level but won't work with others. Sakura-chan has the technical know-how but her physical performance leaves a lot to be desired. Had there been a third genin as is customary she would have likely ignore them in favor of Sasuke-chan. Honestly, both of them would benefit from another year at the Academy for more physical and mental training, but as their personalities are right now, they should quit being ninja, because they don't have the qualities we're looking for in Konoha shinobi," Naruto told him with brutal honesty. He was slightly disappointed, to be honest. He'd had such high hopes for them too. "They didn't understand the test."

"And which should be tied to the stump?"

"Sakura," was the immediate answer. "Since she's dieting, she won't want lunch anyway. Also, her performance was worse than Sasuke-chan's."

"I see your point," nodded Kakashi-sensei sagely.

Naruto hit him on the arm. "Stop that, Kakashi-sensei! You're not fooling anyone!" he teased his sensei. "You may be the prodigious student of the Yondaime Hokage but you're no wise man. Ero-sennin and Hokage-jiji are closer to sages than you'll ever be."

Kakashi turned one big, grey eye to Naruto who could tell he was pouting under his mask. "Really Naruto-kun? Is this how you treat your beloved sensei?" he asked, rubbing his arm.

"Beloved sensei you may be, but my love is the tough kind," grinned Naruto as they tied Sakura to the stump. "Truth hurts and all that, dattebayo!"

Then the two turned to the genin.

"So, the verdict of you two was that you should quit being ninjas," Kakashi-sensei said with his normal, lazy tone. "I can see Naruto-kun's point. You didn't look underneath the underneath, didn't understand the point of this test. In theory a three genin team can overpower a jounin, and two genin can overpower a chunin. That is, if they work together."

"The team I was assigned first didn't pass Kakashi-sensei's test, mostly because the other two didn't want to work with a snot nosed brat like I was at the time," Naruto told them. "The only other way to get the rank of genin is if a jounin picks you for an apprentice. I was lucky Kakashi-sensei picked me, 'cause I might have been in your class at the Academy otherwise. But the only reason I passed back then was 'cause I still had so little chakra that I _could_ produce a standard bunshin. Now, without all the chakra control I have, I would over charge the jutsu and end up with a dead looking clone. Kakashi-sensei taught me kage bunshin a few year ago when it became clear that concentrating on creating a bunshin took too much time and effort for it to be an advisable thing to do in battle."

"The test was about... teamwork?" asked Sakura slowly.

"And you failed!" snapped Naruto.

"Konoha isn't like other villages," Kakashi-sensei began. "We all pull together. The stronger help the weaker, the weaker support the stronger. We leave no one behind and no one goes off alone. Konoha wass built on the teamwork of the Uchiha-" here Kakashi looked pointedly at Sasuke who huffed and looked away, "-and the Senju, two clans who'd been at war since the beginning of time because the clan heirs befriended each other. Yes, in the end they fought at the Valley of the End, but for years they'd worked together and protected Konoha side-by-side. While Naruto-kun hasn't had a team of his own, he's often worked with other genin and chunin during missions."

Naruto smirked at him. "I suppose we'll be working more with Gai-san's team then, since the cute little genin didn't pass. You did promise him."

Kakashi-sensei shuddered. "On second thought, maybe I'll give you guys another chance," he said and scratched his mask covered cheek. "I've had enough of the Springtime of Youth for a while." He turned to Naruto. "Make sure Sasuke doesn't feed Sakura! If she eats, they FAIL! I'll be back in half-an-hour, when the three of you will be attacking me instead of them attacking you, Naruto-kun! Ja ne!"

"Bastard-sensei!" shouted Naruto indignantly, shaking a fist at the spot where Kakashi-sensei had just shunshined away. Then he took one of the two bento and went to sit in front of the memorial stone. "He's a bastard sometimes," he told the two genin without looking at them. "But he has a good reason for emphasizing teamwork. He was apprenticed under Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, like I said earlier. When he was nine, Namikaze-san took two genins under his wing while Kakashi-sensei was already a chunin. The Third Shinobi World War had begun when Kakashi-sensei's father had saved his team mates instead of finishing an important mission, so people graduated the Academy at eight, nine or ten, instead of the peace time twelve. All three of them were nine and for years Kakashi-sensei resented the other two, thinking they were holding him back or eating away his time with Namikaze-san who'd become a surrogate father to him. Eventually the two genin became chunin and Kakashi-sensei became jounin. On his first mission after his promotion one of his team mates was kidnapped. The other wanted to rescue her despite the mission but Kakashi-sensei, who was very by-the-book back then, wanted to finish the mission, because his father had started the War by saving his team mates instead of finishing his mission. Anyway, the other team mate defied Kakashi-sensei, who was his commanding officer in the field, and went after their third team mate. Kakashi-sensei realised that he couldn't let his two team mates die because he was finishing the mission instead of helping them, so he headed back. One of the Iwa nin that had his team mate, Nohara Rin, eventually ripped out Kakashi-sensei's left eye after he and this team mate managed to save Rin-san. Problem was... the Iwa nin weren't defeated and launched a jutsu that would have killed Kakashi-sensei if his other team mate hadn't pushed him aside. Uchiha Obito had just awakened his sharingan on that mission and was crushed under a boulder. He was still alive, being crushed alive. Half of his body was under the boulder, but his left eye was undamaged. He had Rin-san take it out of his eye socket and implant it in Kakashi-sensei's empty left one as a you-made-jounin-present and a way to protect his team mates even after death. Rin-san's story isn't any happier. She was kidnapped by Kiri nin and made the jinchuriki of the Sanbi. She was supposed to be driven back to Konoha where the Kiri nin would have ripped open the seal and let the Sanbi out to destroy Konoha. Rin knew this and intercepted Kakashi-sensei's assassination technique when they were fighting the Kiri nin, making Kakashi-sensei kill her to save the village. Not four years later Kyuubi attacked and the Yondaime sacrificed himself to take it down, leaving Kakashi-sensei alone. To this day Kakashi-sensei feels guilty about his team mates' fates and he tries so hard to make sure they don't repeat. He has a saying that I think sums all this up very nicely. _Those who don't follow the rules are trash. Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash._" He popped the first piece of lunch into his mouth and smiled when he heard Sakura's stomach grumble. "Well, I'mma take a nap," he said and laid down, his back to the genin but with a mirror up so that he could see what they were doing. "Wake me up when Kakashi-sensei shows up."

Sasuke, who was paler than he'd been before, sat down and looked at his bento before glancing at Sakura. Naruto could see the indecision on his face before it hardened to a resolve. Pride welled up in Naruto when Sasuke got up and walked over to Sakura, feeding her a small piece of rice when she opened her mouth to obviously ask him what he was doing.

They passed, even though Kakashi-sensei and Naruto had to spell it out for them.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: It's been warm here for the past few days. Normally we don't hit 25 degrees Celsius until mid-June, maybe later! But now it's been 25 degrees Celsius in the shadow for two days! It's making me drowsy.

Anyway, thanks for all who read, reviewed, favorited or followed the story.

I'm gonna go take a nap now before hitting the books again. Wish me luck for the entrance exams!

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Naruto's experience from D rank missions were mostly of things he could do alone, such as baby-sitting one child, catching Tora-the-demon-cat or shopping. He'd never done things like painting a fence, since the fences that needed painting were always too long for only one person. He'd never weeded the main fields of Konoha. He'd never cleaned up an entire park. He'd never been entertainment at a birthday party.

Now though... Now he had a team that had to start with D rank missions and Kakashi-sensei had forbidden him from just sending a kage bunshin in his place. To be fair, his advanced chakra control exercises helped during the missions (and after, Sasuke-chan had demanded he teach him, which had given Naruto an excellent way to bond with the emotionally stunted boy), but they were dead boring and Kakashi-sensei refused to teach him anything the genin couldn't learn (which meant nothing, for the moment, so Naruto concentrated on his seals and chakra control which could always be better).

But he'd had enough. A month of chores was more than enough for him. He needed to get out of the village. The oppressive atmosphere was becoming too much again. A long-lasting, slow, low-level, _easy_ C rank mission that took him outside again was what he needed. Some escort mission somewhere in Hi no Kuni or Cha no Kuni or Udon no Kuni would hit the spot.

This was what Naruto had in mind when he went through the pile of missions to be assigned that day before the rest of Team Seven came back from finding Tora-the-demon-cat. Against Kakashi-sensei's orders he'd left them with a kage bunshin but he justified it to himself with the fact that he was looking for a more interesting mission.

Then he hit the jackpot.

A bridge builder needed safe passage to Nami no Kuni as well as protection while finishing his bridge. At civilian pace, it'd take a week, a week-an-a-half to get to Nami no Kuni, it'd take, two-three weeks to finish the bridge and a few days back by shinobi pace, possibly thee or four, depending on Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan's stamina as well as the weather. A month out of Konoha all-in-all! Perfect!

"I found the perfect mission for my team, dattebayo!" he proclaimed to Hokage-jiji and thrust the scroll to the old man. "Give them a little real life experience! Maybe fight a few thugs. It might be the wake-up call they need! And – and traveling broadens the mind, doesn't it? I bet Sasuke-chan hasn't been outside the walls since his family died!"

Hokage-jiji chuckled and took his pipe out of his mouth. "Calm down, Naruto-kun. We'll see then," he said and looked down at the scroll, skimming over the mission details. "Indeed, it looks perfect for a first C rank mission. Except that... we haven't heard much from Nami no Kuni lately. Normally they request assistance for something almost once a month and this is the first mission request in close to a year."

Naruto perked up. "Oh! I know! I know! Me and Kakashi-sensei can do recon on the side! See what's really going on there! See if they've started sending their missions somewhere else! I need a few more recon missions before becoming jounin, don't I? Please, jii-san!"

"Uzumaki-san!" snapped one of the chunins on mission desk duty. He had his hair in a tight ponytail and a horizontal scar ran across his nose. If Naruto remembered correctly, he was Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan's Academy teacher, Umino Iruka-san. "Please show the Hokage-sama the respect he deserves!"

Stamping down on the rising resentment, Naruto adopted Kakashi-sensei's Gai-is-here-act-all-hip-and-cool posture, slouching his shoulders and putting his hands to his pockets before lazily turning to the other chunin. "Huh? Did you say something?" It might be a lame prank, but he could never resist it. It made everyone react one way or another.

It didn't let him down either. Umino-san's face flushed red and anger sparked in his eyes, which was better than the cold indifference in his eyes before. "Uzumaki! That isn't how a respectable shinobi behaves!"

"And I'm not one of your Academy students," Naruto drawled. "I graduated four years ago. Also, I'm sure Hokage-jiji would tell me if he wanted me to call him Hokage-sama. Though... that might make the weekly Friday night dinners rather awkward..."

"Now Naruto-kun," reprimanded Hokage-jiji with an amused chuckle. "Don't antagonize Iruka-kun, it's not good for a future Hokage to be on bad terms with his shinobi."

Sheepishly Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a forced chukle. "I'm sorry Umino-sensei, I didn't mean to offend you."

"And Iruka-kun," Hokage-jiji said, turning to Umino-san. "Naruto-kun doesn't mean anything by it, he just shows respect differently. I quite remember another young man paying his respects to the late Hokages by paint bombing the Hokage monument."

Umino-san flushed even deeper and lowered his face. Naruto looked on in interest. The tight laced chunin had once been a prankster? Who knew?

"I..." Umino-san began. "I accept your apology, Uzumaki-san. I would like to apologize too. It just... most of my students were your age..."

Naruto grinned. "Think nothing of it, Umino-sensei! Water under the bridge! Besides, I know what you mean, Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan can be a little thoughtless at times, but I'm working on that."

"Back to the mission, Naruto-kun," Hokage-jiji said and put his pipe back to his mouth. "Your recon mission would be B rank, so be ready write an appropriate report and include everything from the general financial situation to the political atmosphere and social standing. You last recon mission report was slightly lacking in the political department, but I'm sure you can do better this time. Also, you'll have to convince Kakashi-kun to take the missions. If he comes in and asks for another D rank, that's what I'll give him and Gai-kun's team will go to Nami no Kuni."

Naruto snapped to attention. "Sir, yes sir!" he said with a grin and saluted cheekily, turning around and going off to find his team.

He didn't get far unti he came across his team making their way back to the Hokage tower to return Tora-the-demon-cat to the Fire Daimyo's wife. With a yell he attracted their attention and jumped down from the roof. He landed in front of them, the kage bunshin dispersing itself now that it wasn't needed anymore.

"Hey you two cute little genin!" he greeted them cheerfully. "Hiya, Kakashi-sensei! Guess what, guess what? I found us a perfect mission, dattebayo! It's low C rank with lots of time to train! It's an escort-and-protect mission to Nami no Kuni, lasting for about a month. Say," he turned to Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan, "are you two ready for a C rank, do you think? I bet you're getting bored of these chores, aren't you? I mean, I am, and I can enjoy watching you two struggle with the chakra exercises."

"Hn. I suppose I'd like to try a C rank mission," Sasuke-chan finally grunted when their pink haired team mate looked indecissive.

Sakura-chan nodded determinedly now that Sasuke-chan had agreed. "Yeah, no more weeding or cleaning a park for me, please. I get dirt under my finger nails!"

Naruto stared at her. "You do know that on C rank missions there is a threat of being attacked by common thugs and robbers. That means you'd have to fight. And in a fight, you might even break a nail."

Sakura-chan huffed. "I know that, Naruto-baka!" she said forcefully. "I'm sure I'd be okay," she said more softly and glanced at Sasuke-chan, a blush dusting her cheeks.

"Ne Kakashi-sensei, can we take it?" pleaded Naruto. "I really want to get out of the village, it's boring here, nothing ever happens, dattebayo!"

"Except that chunin traitor a month ago, wasn't it, Naruto-kun," said Kakashi-sensei and turned a page in his book.

"I don't count him," Naruto answered. "He had clearly looped the loop, going on and on about the Kyuubi and Orochimaru and the Yondaime," he said and shook his head. "You know, Ibiki-senpai let me witness the interrogation. I never knew you could do that with pencils."

Kakashi-sensei eye-smiled. "I'd hoped you wouldn't for another year, but the learning experience must've been good for you."

"I don't know about that, but can we do the C rank? Hokage-jiji already agreed! He said it was the perfect first time C rank! Please? Even Sakura-chan and Sasuke-chan want it!" Then Naruto grinned mischievously. "I also have a few experimental attack seals that I don't dare to try in the village in fear of blowing them up."

Kakashi-sensei sighed and threw up his hands in surrender. "Fine! We'll do the C rank mission. Now lets get to the tower to return the lost pet and meet the next client! Also, Naruto-kun," he said as Naruto was doing a victory dance but froze at his sweet tone, "you'll be on cooking and dish washing duty the whole journey since you left a kage bunshin with your team against my explicit orders."

Naruto slumped. He absolutely _hated_ dish washing duty on the road. "Yes Kakashi-sensei," he muttered under his breath and began leading the way to the Hokage tower, shoulders slumped.

At least it wasn't bathroom duty. (Not that it was really needed on a C rank mission anyway. There wouldn't be any pursuing enemy trackers that might smell the crap.)

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Naruto seethed as he walked, glaring at the ground even if he wanted to glare at the worst client ever.

Tazuna-san had been drunk when he was introduced to Team Seven, meaning he easily shattered all Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan's notions of escorting Princesses and saving countries. Then again... Naruto doubted Sasuke had such notions at all. In fact... he probably had the most realistic notion of the newly made genin of what being a shinobi really meant.

But that wasn't why Naruto was so angry at Tazuna. No, it was because the old man had questioned his skills as a shinobi. His! Of all people! He was a chunin, Kami damn it! His trap setting skill were on a low jounin level! His stamina and chakra levels were on and beyond Kage level! He was still learning fuinjutsu (you never finished learning fuinutsu, just like ninjutsu, there was always something more to learn and discover)! He could overpower any genjutsu, as there were few people with more chakra than him! He could hide from the most experienced trackers and sneak up on most paranoid old ANBU.

Was it the orange that made people question his legitimacy as a shinobi? But really, those that you noticed were the worst and the best. It were the mediocre ones that were never seen or heard and Naruto wanted acknowledgement! He wanted people to see him! Always had. That was why he'd first taken orange as his signature color. It stood out, no matter what it was paired with. Also, in the animal world, those who wore bright colors were the most dangerous of them all, screaming with their colors that they were dangerous, poisonous, _would-wake-them-down-even-after-they-were-dead_. Granted, he was never one for poisons, he was much too up-front for them, but even he knew to coat his mission weapons in poison, even if it was merely a paralytic in stead of a lethal one. Slow or paralyzed enemies was easier to kill or capture.

But really, was it the orange? Didn't anyone understand the meanings of colors anymore? Maybe he should just make orange feared, like the Yondaime had made yellow. He knew people in Iwa still flinched when someone mentioned the Kiiroi Senko. Yes, he already had a small name in the other villages, but it was nothing compared to Kakashi-sensei, the Yondaime or even Gai-san.

He thought of the entry on him in the Kumo bingo book that someone had managed to pilfer. He'd been ranked a B rank threat, his customized, orange flak jacket had been used as his identifying object and it had listed Kakashi-sensei as his most likely companion. His mastery of henge (not just that he could perform it adequately but actual mastery) and frequent usage of kage bunshin and fuinjutsu had also been mentioned, but nothing too damaging had been written. There was nothing of his unusually fast healing rate, or his immunity to most poisons or his inability to use genjutsu. It had been recommended that only jounin engage him in battle, or at least more than four chunin. How many other chunin could say that? But then... he didn't plan on being a chunin for the rest of his life, now did he?

Anyway, back to the sucky client. It wasn't enough for him to question Naruto's abilities as a shinobi, no. He had to mention his height. If there was something Naruto hated, it was being called short. It wasn't his fault he was a late bloomer, damn it! At least in the height department, he was perfectly mature in every other way, thank you very much.

Yes, he was, no matter what Kakashi-sensei might say. He was even mature enough to notice the threat to the client even when he was mad at said client.

Besides, _he_ was the stealth master, not these two wanna-bes who decided to hide in puddles when it hadn't rained for close to two weeks. He'd noticed them half-a-mile out of Konoha, though he had a feeling they'd been there straight from the beginning a day and a half ago, but this was the first time they made a move to attack.

Kakashi-sensei of course would have noticed them. Subtly he flared his chakra in a questioning pattern that amounted to _What are you going to do (about the enemy)?_ Naruto knew many hidden Villages had their own patterns and didn't bother learning them all (as the knowledge changed right away when it was known that some other village knew the meaning of some pattern), so he felt safe asking Kakashi-sensei in that manner.

Without outwardly reacting, Kakashi-sensei flared his chakra back in the Konoha patterns _scheme_ and _genin_ and _kawarimi_ and then separately a questioning _target?_, which Naruto thought meant it was time to test the cute little genin and their reactions to a surprise attack, as well as to find out who was the target of the attack.

The group walked past the puddles, Naruto absentmindedly kicking a pebble into one, just to see if it had any effect on the jutsu. (It didn't.)

Naruto felt the faint release of chakra when the two shinobi emerged from their jutsu and prepared his sealless kawarimi. It was useless in a battle as it took more concentration than the normal kawarimi, but in fooling the enemy to thinking that you were unaware of their presence and making your escape when they were attacking it was great. Sure it took a little more chakra, but hey, he had the chakra to spare. Maybe he'd teach the cute little genin the advanced kawarimi... or make Kakashi-sensei teach them while he studied the new scroll on sealing he'd found in the Konoha public library.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he felt the burst of chakra most chunin used to speed up themselves for a short while in a fight. From the corner of his eye he saw Kakashi-sensei wrapped in a metal chain, his visible eye wide with shock.

"One down," one of the attacking shinobi said, pulling the chain taut, slicing through Kakashi-sensei.

Even though Naruto knew his sensei had used kawarimi before getting caught, the bloody mess of the after-image looked so real he wanted to throw up. Well, throw up and kill the attacking shinobi, but no, he couldn't, he had to follow the plan and let the genin have their first blood.

So he made a desperately clumsy attempt of attacking, "accidentally" winding up tangled in the chain and kawarimi'ing out the millisecond he felt the chain tighten.

"Two down," the other shinobi said.

From the trees he watched as his "attack" had apparently been enough to shake Sasuke-chan out of his shock and begin the counter-attack by the clever usage of some shuriken and kunai to secure the chain to a tree.

Of course the attackers, who Naruto now recognized as the chunin level Oni Kyodai Gozu and Meizu of Kirigakure no Sato, weren't a one trick wonder and released their chain rather than trying to yank it free. One of them engaged Sasuke-chan in taijutsu, the other darted past him to attack Sakura-chan and the old man. Sasuke wasn't doing too badly against his opponent even though it was obvious he was outclassed at least in speed if not strength and skill, but Sakura-chan barely managed to deflect the first three blows before getting kicked in the ribs and out of the way to the old man. The Oni Kyodai, Naruto wasn't sure which was which, then went for Tazuna, confirming him as the target of the attack.

With that, Naruto moved.

He knew Kakashi-sensei would take the one that threatened the client, so he intercepted the attack on Sasuke-chan, getting slightly scratched by a claw in the gauntlet when he deflected the blow meant to kill Sasuke. Ignoring the burning sensation in the cut that mean the claws were poisoned, Naruto flashed through hand seals, sunk to the ground, grabbed the other chunin by his ankle and dragged him underground. He emerged quickly behind the attacker and jabbed a pressure point in his neck, making his trashing and cursing captive fall limp in his earth prison.

When he looked up, he saw Kakashi-sensei standing before Sakura-chan, the other Demon Brother slumped under his arm. He eye-smiled at Naruto.

"Good work, Naruto-kun," he said. "That cut okay?"

"Burns," shrugged Naruto. "The toxin's not that bad, it's something I'm immune to, dattebayo!" He turned to Sasuke-chan. "You okay, Sasuke-chan? You didn't get scratched by those claws?"

"Hn, no," answered the genin with a slightly resentful tone, eyebrow twitching at the -chan in the end of his name. For some reason it annoyed him when Naruto called him Sasuke-chan, which was exactly the reason Naruto continued to do so. "What did you mean, something you're immune to?"

Naruto shrugged and crouched to drag the unconscious Demon Brother up from the ground. "I'm immune to most poisons and have less sever reactions to poisons I'm not completely immune to. At worst I might get tired of lethal poisons, or get an upset stomach of those not-so-lethal. We've yet to find a paralytic that works on me, dattebayo! I guess that's the advantage of being poisoned so many times when you're young."

Sakura-chan moaned, holding her ribs as she sat up from where she'd been kicked to. "You bastards... you were alive the whole time?" she demanded as she stood up shakily. "We could have been killed!"

"Maa, Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei said lazily as he walked over to the largest tree, putting his captive down to lean against the tree. "We had the whole thing under control. Besides, maybe this is the wake-up call both of you needed in regards to the shinobi world. Naruto, secure the captives."

"Got it, sensei," answered Naruto and hefted his prisoner to the tree. He took out a few seal tags, smeared the Oni Kyodai's blood on them and stuck them to the tree with chakra, activating them. The higher seals drew in the wrists of the captives and the lower seal drew in the neck.

"The shinobi world isn't kind and cool," Kakashi-sensei continued talking to Sakura-chan and Sasuke-chan. "It's bloody and dangerous and you can get dropped on at any moment. You need to be aware of your surroundings at all times. Had you been paying attention, you might have known these two have been tailing us since we left Konoha. Now Naruto, what did you use to restrain them?"

"You remember those seals I used on the bell test day? I told you I had a version for every bone in the body. The seal at the neck targets C7 in the spine," Naruto grinned, showing his teeth in a slightly blood thirsty manner that he'd learned from Anko when he'd been thrust upon her for week when Kakashi-sensei had been on a solo mission just when he'd made chunin. "If they struggle too much, their C7 will break and render them motionless neck down."

Kakashi-sensei looked mildly impressed. "And I guess you deactivate it with chakra? What if the captive channels chakra to it themselves?"

"Nah, it won't deactivate from the chakra of the target," Naruto shook his head. "The seal got an example of their chakra in the blood, so it will reject it. It was bloody hard to get it to work right and that week some months back when you were in Kaminari no Kuni I walked around with those seal tags all over me because I couldn't deactivate them myself. Finally Izumo and Kotetsu got so annoyed that I rustled when ever I moved that they agreed to deactivate them for me when we had the gate guarding duty together."

Nodding slowly Kakashi-sensei tried to move the captive on the right a little, but stopped when he couldn't move him easily. "They seem to be working like you said," he finally concluded. "I knew you had long since surpassed me in fuinjutsu, but I never thought I'd see such instinctive use of seals again."

"Heh, well..." Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head, pleased with the praise Kakashi-sensei was giving him, "it's in my blood, after all."

Kakashi-sensei looked at him sharply, his visible eye narrowed slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I did some research on seals and seal history and guess what? Fuinjutsu was practically invented by the Uzumaki!" answered Naruto happily, though Kakashi-sensei's reaction was confusing. "It originated in this place, Uzu no Kuni that was the home of the Uzumaki clan. But for some reason, I can't seem to find any information on Uzu no Kuni or Uzushiogakure no Sato after the second shinobi world war. It's not marked on any map that I can find."

"I've never heard of Uzu no Kuni or Uzushiogakure," said Sakura-chan, joining the conversation.

"Maa, let's leave the history lesson for later," drawled Kakashi-sensei and applied a weak suiton jutsu to wake the two up. "We've got two chunin level captives. According to the Bingo book they're Kiri missing-nin and known to fight until death."

"How did you know we were there?" asked the one on the left.

"Naruto-kun here is a budding sensor," he said lazily and gestured to his apprentice. "He's known you were following us half-a-mile out of Konoha. Me... well... I'm a jounin, I wouldn't have survived the third Shinobi war if I hadn't known when enemies were tailing me and the problem with your jutsu was that it hasn't rained in a few days so a puddle struck out like a sore thumb."

"Why did you let the brats fight if you knew that?" Tazuna asked, turning slightly to him.

"If I was up to it, I could have killed these two in the blink of an eye without breaking their genjutsu and Naruto-kun could have killed them in three seconds," answered Kakashi-sensei. "However... I needed to know who was their target," he said and glared at the client from the corner of his eye.

Tazuna looked up. "What do you mean?"

"The target could have been anyone but Sakura-chan," elobrated Naruto. "So we had to see if it was one of us or you."

"We have not heard anything about you being targeted by ninja," Kakashi-sensei continued. "Your request was to protection from armed robbers and gangs of thugs. You being targeted by ninjas means that this mission is above B rank. Our job was to guard and protect you until you'd finished your bridge. If we had known you were targeted by ninja, this mission would have been an expensive B rank mission assigned to a group of chunin or a jounin. It looks like you have your reasons, but it only makes our job harder if you lie about the job description. This wasn't part of the mission."

"This mission is out of our league?" asked Sakura-chan, worry in her voice. "Let's quit! It's a miracle only Naruto-baka was hurt and that he's immune to poisons. Had it been anyone else, we'd have needed to go back to the village to take out the poisoned blood."

Kakashi-sensei looked troubled and while Naruto was brimming with desire to continue with the mission (it had just gotten interesting! Enemy shinobi!), he knew Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan weren't quite ready for this type of mission. Since the Demon Brothers were chunin rank, the next opponent was likely to be jounin rank and might even give Kakashi-sensei some trouble. Oh, Naruto had all the confidence that Kakashi-sensei would emerge victorious, but what if there were more than one enemy? He could easily hold back chunin level ninja, as well as low jounin, but anything higher and Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan would be in danger.

But then... most missing nin who were above chunin didn't like working with others. What were the chances of that the missing nin they'd be against would have underlings or partners? Maybe a few untrained civilian thugs, but even freshly graduated genin could take care of them with little problem.

Naruto turned to look at Tazuna who was sweating. "So, why did you lie? I mean, you don't seem stupid enough to lie for no reason."

Tazuna licked his lips nervously. "It began some years ago when Gato arrived to Nami no Kuni..."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm done with all the entrance exams! The last few weeks have been wonderfully relaxing! I feel my inspiration returning all the time!

Anyway, EyesLikeLiquidFire asked for more Naruto-Kakashi interaction, and since I was already heading in the direction, I decided to dedicate this chapter to them. Hope they like it.

Also, it was pointed out to me I should **bold** the jutsus, but personally I always feel that draws the attention away from the story itself, so it really is a conscious decision not to do that. After all, you can't really use bold if/when you're writing a novel, which is what I'm aiming for in the future.

R&R!

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Kakashi-sensei was knocked out.

_Kashi-niisan_ was _knocked out_.

It didn't really register to Naruto as he stared at his prone sensei lying on the ground. He'd never seen his sensei _unconscious_. Sleeping, sure, dozing, a couple of times, but _out cold_? Never.

He was usually like a cockroach, popping right back up.

But now this Momochi Zabuza had forced sensei to use his Sharingan more than was healthy. In fact, Momochi Zabuza had trapped sensei, forcing Naruto to lead the genin in the fight against an A rank missing nin. Of course he'd known immediately that the only way for them to even survive the fight, was to free Kakashi-sensei. The mizu bunshin had gone down easily enough, having only a tenth of the real Zabuza's strength, but he'd still managed to bruise Naruto's ribs when he'd been stepping on Naruto's chest.

Team work with Sasuke-chan had been easier than Naruto had thought, now that he'd apparently seen a measure of his strength in the fight against Oni Kyuki. Sasuke-chan was funny that way, he respected strength.

Sakura-chan though... the girl was problem all on her own. She'd be Sakura-chan for a long time, as opposed to Sasuke-chan who'd soon, after their first chunin exam, graduate to Sasuke-kohai and Sasuke-kun once he made chunin. Or maybe Sasuke-teme, depending on their relationship at the time, really. But Sakura-chan... she'd need a miracle, or at least a harsh reality check, to get anywhere in her life. If he and Sasuke-chan had been anyone else, she'd have died in the Oni Kyuki attack.

But back to sensei.

Who was still on the ground.

Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan were both looking at him expectanly.

He was chunin, they were genin and their jounin-sensei had been take out of commission, of course they'd defer to him.

"Tazuna, how long to your house?" he asked, turning to the bridge builder.

"It's just half-a-mile," answered the bridge builder. "You can use the guest rooms."

Naruto nodded and formed a few kage bunshi who picked up Kakashi-sensei. "Let's go, he's going to need to be as warm as possible, chakra exhaustion often leads to death by hypothermia. Sasuke-chan, Sakura-chan, you're going to be working on your chakra control while we walk, it'll help you in a battle situation in which you're required to pay attention to more than you chakra control. Make those leaves spin."

Sakura-chan looked at him slightly resentful but nodded.

"Yes senpai," nodded Sasuke-chan, happy to have more training even if sensei was unconscious. It had really become the norm for them for Naruto to give pointers and additional training exercises on top of the team training that Kakashi-sensei held them. Sakura-chan joined them sometimes but not nearly always. The way to Sasuke-chan's heart was through training, Naruto often joked to Kakashi-sensei.

Flashback:

They sat at the counter at Ichiraku's after a day of "team training", or rather D rank missions, discussing the new additions to their daily life.

"Sakura is worse than Rin was in the beginning," Kashi-niisan moaned, his bowl empty and mask back in place, to Naruto's ever present charging.

"But Rin-san grew to a good iryo-nin, right?" asked Naruto, taking a little pause in eating. "Maybe you should take her to the hospital and let her see what not training or bad training does to people. And Sakura-chan has quite damn near perfect chakra control, she might take an interest in iryo ninjutsu. Sure, she'd need to expand her chakra reserves exponentially to be of any real use, but it'd be a beginning for her."

Kashi-niisan shook his head. "Not yet, she's not ready to let go of her romantic vision of what ninjas do. Maybe after their first blood but she's mentally much too young and naive to listen to anything either of us have to say. I doubt even Sasuke could get her to train seriously."

Naruto hmmed. "You might be right, but it would be a good exercise for Sasuke-chan," he commented.

Kashi-niisan turned to look at him more fully. "How so?"

"Well, his social skills are... how should I say it... really fucking shot," Naruto answered bluntly. "He doesn't seem to know how to ask for help, or even _when_ to ask for help. He demands things he has no right in demanding, he expects to be treated in a certain way. I mean, yeah, he seems pretty content when he has something new to learn and train on, but every time he's finished, he just comes up to me and demands another thing to learn. I mean, I'm a chunin so I've got quite a lot of different individual training exercises, but that kid... honestly, sensei he doesn't bother mastering anything, he just learns them to the point in which he can use them. On the other hand, he's skilled for a fresh genin and has the drive to become much more, but he won't get there if he doesn't learn to talk to people, to ask for their help in training him."

"Astute as always, Naruto-kun," Kashi-niisan eye-smiled at him.

"He doesn't seem to care for anyone who isn't strong enough to train him," Naruto shook his head a little just as Ayame-neechan placed his second bowl in front of him. He brightened up. "Thanks Ayame-neechan!" he cheered and fished the bowl for the first bite of noodles.

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach!" Ayame-neechan laughed jokingly, winking at Kashi-niisan and went back to serving other customers.

Naruto perked up. "You know, that makes me think that the way to Sasuke-chan's heart is through training!"

Kashi-niisan stared at him for a second before bursting out laughing. "I can just see it, you offering to train with him and him showing up with a rose bouquet!" he snickered behind his hand, much like he did when he read Icha Icha.

Naruto flushed when he realized how his words could be intercepted. "I didn't mean it like that, dattebayo! Thanks to that, you can pay! Gimme another miso with pork, Oji-chan!"

"What? Naru-chan!"

End of the flashback:

During the rest of the journey Naruto kept his attention on their surroundings, sensing for other chakra presences, hostile or not, because that oinin that had taken Zabuza's corpse hadn't been hostile, but had turned to be a capable enemy shinobi. With the correct state of mind you could still feel unhostile and nonthreatening while killing someone, and that was an ability Naruto both admired and feared, as he couldn't imagine divorcing his feelings in that way to make himself seem nonthreatening but knew would be an invaluable tool for a shinobi.

By the time they got to Tazuna-san's house, Sasuke-chan was slowly rotating his leaf at a steady pace without faltering in his steps. Sakura-chan on the other hand was breathing heavily, her two leaves spinning rather quickly but her steps slightly unsteady and her eyes glazed over as she concentrated on the leaves.

The two kage bunshin had also taken up leaves, building faux wings out of them, sticking them to their shoulder blades and then flapping them steadily, as if preparing to take flight.

"How do you do that?" demanded Sasuke-chan when the house came to view.

"Do what, Sasuke-chan?" Naruto asked, scanning the water's edge.

"Those leaf wings," was the short answer.

Naruto blinked at him before glancing at the leaf wings his clones had. Grinning, he rubbed the back of his head as he answered. "Well, first I coated all those leaves in my chakra and molded them to that shape. Then I use chakra to keep them on my shoulder blades, but because they're heavier than your normal leaf, it takes more effort to keep them flapping. Kakashi-sensei designed that exercise for me when I had to learn to release controllable chakra from my back for some optimal use of my seals. The back and the feet are the hardest places to release chakra from, see, as feet don't have tenketsu, but the back is always such an absurd context because you never see your own back. Releasing chakra from your back is like moving in a foreign dark room while releasing chakra from your feet is like discovering a new group of muscles."

"Is that how Kakashi-sensei, that Zabuza and you were walking on water?" Sakura-chan joined the conversation.

"Yes, it's a chakra exercise," nodded Naruto. "You already learned the tree walking so I think it's time you learn water walking. It'll be easy in a place like this..." he gestured to the sea surrounding them.

Tazuna led them to the house and opened the door, shouting a greeting. An answering shout came from deeper in the house and soon a pretty enough lady with long bluish black hair came out to greet them, stopping when she saw the ninja.

"Otousan, who are the guests?" she asked warily, eyeing them and Kakashi-sensei's unconscious form. The kage bunshin probably didn't help either.

"Tsunami-chan, these are the ninja I hired for protection," Tazuna introduced them. "Brats, this is my daughter Tsunami-chan."

Naruto stepped up, making Tsunami-san raised her eyebrows, as he knew he was the shortest and looked the youngest. "Nice to meet you, Tsunami-san, I am Uzumaki Naruto, a chunin of Konoha, and behind me are genins Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, and our teacher jounin Hatake Kakashi-sensei, please take good care of us," he said with a small bow. "Our teacher is going to need a warm place to rest. Is there some place we could put him? Also, warm tea would help in his recovery as he needs to stay as warm as possible."

Tsunami-san blinked at him a few times before smiling faintly. "Of course Uzumaki-kun, please follow me," she said and led them up stairs to some adjoined rooms that seemed to work as guest rooms. She laid out a futon and started a fire in the small fireplace as the kage bunshin laid Kakashi-sensei down on the futon, covering him with the blankets. Then he took out one of sensei's summoning scrolls, smearing a bit of sensei's blood on it before powering the kuchiyose no jutsu himself.

Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan were watching him as he worked, the kage bunshin having been dismissed and Tsunami-san having gone to make the requested tea, but started when they were suddenly overwhelmed with dogs.

The dogs were all posturing aggressively, their bodies ready to attack or defend in an instant, but when no enemy was in sight, the little pug with a vest and a hitai-ate stepped forward.

"Naruto? Did you summon us?" it, he, asked.

"Yeah, sorry Pakkun, I know I'm not supposed to, but Kakashi-sensei has exhausted his chakra and his body temperature is going to be plummeting some time soon, and while I'd have no problem keeping him warm myself, I'm sure he'd prefer if it were you," he explained sheepishly. ("Yeah, we know you like cuddling," the pug grunted.) Then he pointed at Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan, Sakura who had gone wide eyed when the ninken spoke. "Those are Kakashi-sensei's new students, Uchiha Sasuke-chan and Haruno Sakura-chan," he said as the other ninken all nodded to the genin before settling around their master.

"How'd Kakashi get to this condition, kid?" asked Pakkun.

"This mission was supposed to be a run-for-the-mill escort-and-protect C rank mission, but the person after our client hired Momochi Zabuza to kill our client," Naruto explained. "Kakashi-sensei was exhausted by using the Sharingan too much in the battle less than half-an-hour ago."

Pakkun nodded as he settled down on Kakashi's stomach. "You did well kid, getting Kakashi to a warm place as fast as you could. I'm sure he'd be proud of you."

Naruto's smile was strained.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The blood on the tree trunk mocked him.

He looked down at his healed but blood covered knuckles. They didn't even hurt anymore. It was so unfair that he had an unnaturally fast healing and recuperating rate and Kakashi-sensei laid back at the house for using too much chakra. Naruto knew Kakashi-sensei's chakra reserves weren't anything to sneeze at, in fact he had most chakra out of the serving jounin at the moment, but he also knew his own chakra reserves were big enough to make a kage green with envy.

Kakashi-sensei often said that his biggest blessing was also his greatest curse, and right at the moment Naruto knew it to be true. Because the fight had been on water, he couldn't concentrate on it one-hundred percent as he had to pay attention to staying on top of the water, which led to prolonging the battle, which in turn meant that Kakashi-sensei used his Sharingan too much, leading to the current situation.

He couldn't be caught in such a situation again, he decided. What if when he was a jounin and a sensei, he'd come across someone proficient in water walking and he'd be unable to win simply because his opponent had better chakra control? He'd certainly never be welcomed back to the village and he'd never be made Hokage if he lost his genin team because he couldn't control his _fucking_ chakra.

Biting his lip he looked at the tree he'd been hitting. It was relatively young when compared to the other hundred-year-old trees, but something had been wrong with it even before he started systematically decimating it. The leaves were few and far between, as well as they all had black spots on them from what Naruto could see. If he remembered correctly, and it very well might be that he didn't, that mean that there was some kind of parasite killing the tree slowly. Caring for the trees around Konoha was a C rank mission for recovering chunin and jounin that needed to rebuild their health, but Naruto had been on the mission simply because Kakashi-sensei had been needed to escort Hokage-jiji to the chunin exams in Kumo six months after Naruto's own promotion to chunin. Some of the younger trees that hadn't been grown by the Shodai had had the same symptoms from what Naruto remembered and the Nara who'd been in charge had said that the only way to keep the parasite from infecting others had been to rip the tree up by the roots and then burn the roots without drying them.

Naruto looked at the tree up and down. His hits had already loosened the roots a little. Just a little, mind. It wouldn't fall down on it's own for quite a while without a horrible storm, but rather the earth would once again pack around them tightly. But with a small doton jutsu...

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Naruto looked proudly on his new training log in the middle of the channel that separated Nami no Kuni from Hi no Kuni. Perhaps the most rigorous training he got today was carrying the long, heavy trunk to the middle of the channel using kage bunshin and water walking, or the fuuton chakra exercise he used to cut off the branches of the trunk.

The fuuton chakra exercise was something he'd developed himself, modeled after the leaf cutting exercise. The idea was to coat his hand in wind chakra and generate the sharp energy as blades from the fingertips, like invisible claws. He supposed they were rather like chakra scalpels, but his technique used the natural sharpness of fuuton chakra instead of controlling sharp blades of non-elemental chakra, and his fuuton chakra claws weren't nearly as subtle and controlled as the chakra scalpels he'd seen iryo-nin use on occasion.

With a satisfied air he returned to the shore, popping the joints of his back. Nothing like a bit of physical work to make him feel good.

He walked back to the house with his hand behind his head, whistling a jaunty tune.

Kakashi-sensei would be okay, the sun was shining, birds were singing, Zabuza was dead, the oinin took care of him...

He stopped in his tracks, whistling dying on his lips.

_The oinin took care of it..._

The oinin _took_ care of it... took the whole of Zabuza when just a head would have sufficed and the body should have been destroyed right away.

The fuck...? The little fucker was one of Zabuza's minions?!

That went against every stereotype in the book!

But then... Zabuza had been trying to assassinate the insane Yondaime Mizukage, meaning he was trying to help Kirigakure rather than hinder it, which in itself was rare for would-be-assassins. And he still had his hitai-ate, wearing it for all to see. He also hadn't scratched it, as was custom for missing nin who had left because they no longer held any loyalty to their village, if they didn't completely discard it. Zabuza probably only took this job with Gato only to finance another coup.

He slapped his forehead. This really wasn't a time to sympathize with the enemy! After the battle, sure, but not before! That made it harder to fight them!

But he needed to tell Kakashi-sensei as soon as possible of Zabuza's survival. With luck, he might be awake already.

With a burst of speed, Naruto ran down the dock to the house, making his way up stairs to Kakashi-sensei's room. In the hallway he passed an apathetic boy dressed in green pull ups, and in the back of his mind he heard Tazuna say something about his grandson crying for three days straight if he died.

"Zabuza is alive," he announced firmly as he opened the door to Kakashi-sensei's recovery room.

Kakashi-sensei was awake, though still laying down and surrounded by his ninken, and he smiled tiredly at Naruto.

Before he managed to say anything, Sakura spoke up. "We already know that, Naruto-baka," she said in a dead-pan tone, like he was stupid for saying it aloud.

"Sensei figured it out," said Sasuke-chan, rolling his eyes from the corner her was sitting in, leaning on the wall.

"But I'm proud you figured it out on your own, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said, voice tired but warm. "It's things like that they're looking for in the jounin exams, recognizing when things aren't right."

Naruto tilted his head slightly. "I thought that was what chunin exams were for?"

"Oh my young apprentice," chuckled Kakashi-sensei, "chunin exams are multi-layered. I'll tell you more later," he glanced significantly at Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan, "but for now I trust that you will teach these two something useful in the next week."

Naruto began to smile slowly. That was Kakashi-sensei, alright, trying to wiggle out of actually working. "Fine, but you owe me a jutsu," he bartered.

"Deal, you little rascal," Kakashi-sensei hummed before closing his visible eye. "Now go away, I need to sleep."

"C'mon you two," Naruto said, jerking his head towards the door at the two genin. "Time to learn walking on water, and if you can manage that, I'll teach you a jutsu."

That got the two genin moving, Sakura-chan scrambling to get up and Sasuke-chan seemingly revitalized, leaving a chuckling Naruto behind. He moved to follow them.

Just when he was closing the door, Kakashi-sensei spoke. "Thank you Naruto-kun."

Naruto wasn't sure what his teacher was thanking him about, as it could have been for anything between saving his life from Zabuza to agreeing to teach the two genin while Kakashi-sensei recuperated. But he smiled sincerely.

"Any time, Kashi-niisan."


End file.
